In contrary to what you might think(yeah correct, which is what you think I might think) I am gonna blog about, it is not. Well except the first paragraph.
3 papers down already so far! After 3 papers, I can come to a conclusion that today's one was not good. I am not going to say too much on it just so that I would not happen to jinx myself. Well, you never know. Haha
Well, recently there were times when during revision, my mind would wander and think about rubbish, i.e. stuff not relevant to what is in front of me. This ranges from what I am going to do once I first touch down on Brunei, to how many points LeBron James's gonna score in tonight's game to whatever. One of em was the long debated effectiveness of exams.
Sometimes I wonder whether exams are more of a memorization test to see who had better memory or really a test to see how much one could understand the material. In the first 2 papers I had for example, there were loads of stuff that I had to gobble up memory-wise. Stuff like definitions and a few examples for each particular emm.. waddaya call that, topic? You memorize so much, and all that comes up is only about 15 % of what you memorized. LOL.
Sometimes I feel its getting silly. We spend a year waking up early sacrificing valuable sleep time to attend lectures, rushing from lectures to home n to lectures n spend nights re-reading notes ( haha.. rarely done thou) bla bla. Not only that, for some(like me), we sacrifice our time we get to spend with our families, and all the yummy foods, to come all the way to a foreign land. Yeah seriously we do learn stuff in the lectures or practicals throughout the course of time here. BUT. What happens in certain subjects' exams is that they ask for definitions, examples bla bla, they'd it'd seem foolish to note memorize to prepare for em.
Somehow, I feel for those whose mothertongue ain't English(and also possibly some whose mothertongue's English), there is this higher chance that our command of English is not that strong which limits how we express what we interpret of something. Thus, our without-the-book defining of a term would be insufficient to cover what the term really means. Thus, what happens? MEMORIZE.
So, I was wondering recently, walao, if this course was all about memorizing, I could have just got all the notes, and just memorize every single damn term n whatever-there-is-to-b-memorized from Day 1 itself. Err wait. What course am I in again? Definitely not a 'memorization-techniques' course eh?
Besides, I feel that the scheduling of such exams that requires massive memorization is really important. Imagine you had an exam on the day before this paper. Chances are most likely you'll not do as well as when you have a couple of days before this one. Why, you might ask? Simple. Coz you don't remember stuff you memorized like 3 days back or maybe 2 weeks back during one of ur revision sessions. LOL. Why again? Cause err, we have like another 9 subjects to revise plus any other random stuff that utilises the brain of yours.
Im talking bout term definitions once more. Most likely you'll remember the outline of how something works, lets say emm, the steps involved in drawing a PERT chart for example. But most likely not those definitions! Well, one might have a case to say, that revising makes it easier to memorize. Well, in a way, I agree too as it works in my case. Besides, one might also say, revising makes you understand the material. Understanding material = easier to memorize. True too. But the 3 lines-definition of what is 'data re-engineering'? Ahh, I think a probable good point. BUT, you'd still have to most likely dig through these the DAY before the exams, which explains why I think the schedule of such exams are very important. Hahaha.
Come to think about it, sometimes all the 9 months of hardwork comes all the way down to the placement of the last day before ur exams. If ur brain decides to rebel, n bring ur mind all over the place instead of storing those definitions, mati. If ur brain decides to be good to u, and go to super-mode, any definitions also masuk, Sui. So what's the most safest way when applying to a course? Ask the one whose in charge of the exam schedule, when is this exam gonna be? Is there a few days preceding it for me to study or not? LOL
So, yeah thus sometimes I feel its a wee bit silly to use exams to judge one's understanding of the course. Ahh, how bout coursework then?? No memorizing, just applying what you've learnt and ur work will be individually assessed. Wonderful eh. Well, not exactly. In reality, courseworks are sometimes marred with people with good brain-manipulation-plus-superior-social skills getting the edge over honest & diligent in studies straight-forward people who don't know a thing about the word 'deceit'. Might sound silly, or childish. But it runs all the way in any levels of education. (Or maybe most)
Lol. Its true! I've seen over n over again, people seemingly not knowing much about a particular course score better than one who is diligent throughout the course. Why? The good-in-talking-n-going-about dude ask a bit here, and a bit there. Sometimes, even the lecturer becomes victim n leaks out a clue or two. The honest, but sadly dumb in this case dude, sits in front of his PC throughout and tries his best, never asks anyone, thinking this is INDIVIDUAL work. LOL. He goes home wondering, walao eh, work so hard also so low for the coursework. Nau hia.
Yeah, so this shows that the questionability over the efffectiveness of coursework in assessing one's understanding too!!! LOL.
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Cialat. So how like that? Is there a proper solution to this?
Some of the possible solutions :
Solution #1:Exams that test you not on definitions, but ur understanding. Hoho. I think this one's effective. BUT.. Its too scary for the students. If you don't know ur stuff, you'd be dead for sure. Good right? But maybe not too. Here's why. I feel sometimes, lecturers just cover way too much in such a short period of time that we tend to not catchup. Yeah, they say you could ask, but damn its just way too much plus its the fundamentals leh! Paiseh man. Study by myself ok. Ok.. But what happens? Study break too short, insufficient time to learn n prepare at the same time.
Solution #2:Exams that have the right mixture of elements that require memorizing and also understanding. Perfect! Memorize as much as you can without really understanding and you could pass! Well, nah, not as effective right? Not as scary as compared to the latter, for the students thou' hahaha.
Solution #3:
Every 2 weeks once, assessed in-class-only practical or test sessions. Maybe 10% of overall marks each. No copying. No going about. Just basically testing ur knowledge on the subject material learnt during the past 2 weeks. Not too much needed to memorize either in this case eh since its only 2 weeks worth of material.
Possible schedule:
1st n 2nd week lectures.
3rd week - Test week.
3rd week's programme:
Monday,Tuesday - Study break.
Wed to Fri - Practs/test
4th n 5th week lectures
6th week - Test week.
.
.
.
.
How's that sound? Will you forget, what you've learnt at week 3 during let's say week 12 of the course? Yeah most likely, if the test's material is only built upon 2 weeks worth of work. Why not tests focusing 70% on the 2 weeks' worth of work and 30% worth of previous weeks' work??
Sounds good to me.. Any suggestions people? Im sure there are. Hahaha. Let's revolutionize the education system! LOL. Go ahead. Spam my cbox.
Well.. Not this 'spam'. Hahaha. From:link
